On January 31, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) held a symposium in Beijing on promoting strategic cooperation of the development of marine economy, and signed a strategic cooperation agreement, marking the coming of a new stage in which cooperation between the two sides has been deepened in an all-round way.

The symposium was attended by Mr. Wang Hong, Secretary of the leading Party group and Director General of SOA, and Mr. Gu Shu, President of ICBC, where they signed the Strategic Cooperation Agreement between SOA and ICBC for Promoting the Development of Marine Economy on behalf of the two sides respectively. This strategic cooperation is a significant and practical measure to thoroughly implement the spirit of 19th National Congress and the Central Economic Work Conference, and to carry out the Guiding Opinion on Improving and Strengthening Financial Services for the Development of Marine Economy printed and distributed by eight ministries and commissions including the People’s Bank of China and the SOA. ICBC became the first commercial financial institution to sign a strategic cooperation agreement with the SOA.

As agreed upon in the Agreement, both sides, in line with the principle of “policy orientation, complementary advantages and separate policies for industries”, will give priority to the development of the “Belt and Road”, the construction of demonstration area of marine economy and the upgrade of marine industry. Meanwhile, both sides will speed up the establishment of public service platform for maritime investment and financing, and increase financial support for the monitoring and evaluation of the development of marine economy.

Mr. Wang Hong indicated that China’s economy is an open economy highly dependent on the ocean. After 4 decades of reform and opening up, a basic pattern of “making use of two markets and two resources, optimizing imports and exports and having both ends of the production process relied on the ocean” has taken shape in China. With the advancement of the Belt and Road initiative, China’s marine economy is facing rare historic opportunities in need of comprehensive, systematic and accurate financial support. Next, both sides should enhance overall planning and connection, intensify support for the Belt and Road maritime cooperation, and push ahead with the construction of demonstration area of marine economy and the upgrade of marine industry. In the meantime, both sides should set up and improve working mechanism and integration, and closely cooperate in financing, knowledge sharing, pilot demonstration and platform establishment. Moreover, both sides should ensure the implementation of the Agreement and create a good start for the cooperation, so as to promote the development of marine economy and the strengthening of China’s maritime power.

Mr. Gu Shu stressed that ICBC, as a world leading bank, has quality customer base, diversified business structure, strong innovation capacity and market competitiveness. In recent years, ICBC took an active role in carrying out the strategic deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on accelerating the construction of a maritime power, and continued to increase its support for marine infrastructure, for the upgrade of traditional marine industry, for the cultivation and growth of emerging strategic marine industry and for the improvement of marine service industry. As of the end of 2017, the outstanding loans for marine economy reached around RMB200 billion with about RMB85-billion new loans granted for the whole year. For the next step, ICBC will bring into full play its financial service advantages in capital, brand, channel and diversified products to actively explore and work out financial products and service modes accommodating to the marine economy. Furthermore, ICBC will improve the financial services for upstream and downstream enterprises in the whole chain of marine economy, and keep on enhancing comprehensive financial services for the industry upgrading, so as to give full support for its growth.